Maria and the Magic Mirror-Part 2
by Ashley3
Summary: Maria finds out why her new mirror is more than what it seems


Maria awoke with the feeling that something important had happened while she was asleep, something that would change everything. The mirror lay where she had left it the night before, reflecting the bright morning sunlight dimly. For a moment she had the eerie sensation of someone looking back at her through the glass. Shrugging it off, she got dressed for school.  
As she packed her book bag, her gaze was drawn back to the hand mirror. It was so pretty, unlike any of the others she had seen. She had to show it to Liz. Grabbing it, she slid it into her book bag and shut the zipper with determined force.  
Maria welcomed the noisy crowd outside of the school. It gave her chance to be lost in the masses. To be no more than another face in a sea of other faces. To be able, for the barest of seconds, to lose herself, and all her problems. Hey, a second's better than never.  
Apparently Liz and Alex felt the same way because they were in the center of the busiest section. Maria plopped down between them, content to sit in silence for the time being.   
Alex was the first one to break the silence. "How are we supposed to do this?" He said, jumping to his feet and beginning to pace. "Do we pretend to still be friends? Do we still hang out together? Or do we act like we never met?"  
Liz sighed, bowing her head as if it weighed a ton. When she looked up, Maria was surprised at the size of the dark circles under her friend's eyes. She looked like she'd been up for a week straight and crying the entire time. Which she probably had been.  
"I think we should all just keep our distance for awhile. There is no way things are going to go back to the way they used to be, so we really shouldn't even try for that. But, maybe, over time we can all be friends again." Maria knew that she was babbling, but she couldn't help it. This was one of the times when she wished she were good at hiding her feelings. But lately, there were just too many to keep hidden.  
"This whole situation stinks!" Alex exclaimed, slamming his fist into his palm.   
"I think that's the one thing all of us agree on." Maria whispered, feeling the telltale tingle that signaled the start of tears. First bell had never been as welcome as it was at that moment. Much more of that particular topic and Maria knew she would have been in tears.  
Hefting her book bag onto her shoulder, she drifted toward her first class feeling as though she were weighted down with lead. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she looked as depressed as she felt.  
  
Michael's eyes followed her every move as she made her way inside. There had to be some way to fix this! It wasn't possible that he had found the one person that he could connect with, only to have her taken away. He really didn't have any obligation to fulfill that stupid destiny, did he? I mean, they could try and help their people without his being with Isabel. Couldn't he?   
For the space of a heartbeat, Michael almost shrugged off going to class. But catching a glimpse of Maria, even from across the hall was too much to miss. God, he loved her. He would find a way to be with her, because he couldn't live without her.  
  
Maria made her way through her classes on auto pilot. By the time she met up with Alex and Liz in the lunchroom, she was worn out. Pretending to be fine took a lot out of a person.  
Sliding her lunch tray onto the table, she collapsed into a chair. Alex was rooting halfheartedly through his lunch bag, and Liz was staring at the table top as though it were the most fascinating thing in the world.  
Sighing, Maria looked at the food on the tray, decided she wasn't hungry and pushed it away. "So, I thought maybe we'd all get together tonight and do something." She didn't really expect any enthusiasm for her suggestion, but a response would have been nice.  
"This is getting on my nerves!" she cried. "We sit here like lobotomy patients because of some stupid message about destiny. Tell how this is fair? I mean, if she was really their mother, she'd want them to happy right? And if they could be happy with each other, great. But what if they can't? What if they need us as much as we need them to be happy?"  
"Obviously she didn't expect them to fall for humans." Alex muttered, shoving his paper lunch sack across the table so hard it slid onto the floor. He looked as dejected as Maria felt.  
"There has to be a way around this whole destiny thing." Maria said, trying to cling to her last shred of hope.  
"Even if there was a way around it, should we do it?" Liz asked, speaking up for the first time. "This is what they were meant to do. They are supposed to save their people if they can. I for one am not going to stand in the way of that just because I don't want to lose Max. Sometimes, you just have to put other people before yourselves. No matter how much it hurts."  
Maria winced as her best friend's voice cracked on the last sentence. No matter how much she hated to admit it, she knew Liz was right. They had to be bigger than this. Be strong and let Michael, Isabel, and Max do what they needed to do. If they were all meant to be, it would happen.   
It had to happen.  
  
The day dragged on and on until Maria thought she would scream. Several times she caught a glimpse of Max or Isabel from down the hall. Once she had even seen Michael, or the back of his head, anyway. It had been all she could do not to run down the hall towards him.  
She had forgotten all about the mirror until she reached her house. Pulling it out as she sat on her bed, she stared into the clouded glass. As she tipped it to look more closely at the designs, a brilliant ray of sunshine reflected directly into her eyes.  
Dropping the mirror into her lap, she placed both hands over her eyes, blinking rapidly. As her vision cleared, she was amazed to find a girl sitting beside her on the edge of the bed. Maria racked her brain trying to figure out whether or not they'd ever met before and what she was doing in her room. She opened her mouth to voice the question, but before she could say a word, the other girl spoke.  
"Hello, my name is Adara." The girl smiled as though they had just been introduced at a party, rather than her having appeared mysteriously in the middle of a private bedroom.   
"Um, hi."  
"I bet you're wondering where I came from." When Maria nodded, Adara continued. "I came from inside the mirror."  
"So, you're like a genie or something?" Maria asked, feeling as though she'd been sucked into an alternate universe. She hadn't felt this weirded since Liz told her about the whole Czechoslovakian issue.  
"Well, not a genie exactly." Adara was twisting a strand of her long red hair around her finger, looking thoughtful. "More like someone who shows you what you need to see. It's rather hard to explain, so I'll just show you what I mean, but that comes later. Right now, you have to tell me what is so bad in your life that you called me?" Adara moved closer to the center of the bed and settled in to listen.  
"Wait, what do you mean, I called you? I've never seen you before tonight."  
"Of course not. But only those who are in need of help can see the mirror. And only those who I can help are able to call to me. So, how can I help you?"  
Maria was still struggling to understand what was happening when she suddenly felt the unexplainable urge to confide in this strange girl about everything. It all came pouring out before she could stop it. She told Adara everything from fighting with Michael, to falling in love with, right up to the pain that was his destiny. Maybe it was getting it all off her chest to someone who wasn't a part of the whole mess, or maybe it was just being able to say everything out loud with the hopes of having someone fix everything. Whatever it was, by the time she finished, Maria felt much better than she had since the alien's destiny had come to light.  
Adara sat silent through the entire recounting, adding only a nod or a sigh from time to time. When Maria had finally wound down, she straightened her shoulder and began.  
"This is certainly different from any other case I've handled. Aliens? Really? Wow. Well, even though I've never handled anything like that, the main issue here seems to be this so called destiny. Am I right?"  
Maria nodded, and then the question she'd been dying to ask broke out. "Do you really think you can help us?"  
For the longest moment of Maria's life, the other girl remained silent, her brown eyes assessing. Then she answered simply, "Yes."  
Maria' smile felt like it was stretching off her face. Then a thought occurred to her. "This won't stop Michael and the others from fulfilling their destiny, will it? They'll still be able to try and help their people, won't they?"  
"It will be as it is now, their choice. I cannot, and will not, change things too major. But that's really not an issue in your case. In fact, I don't think there's too much that I have to do. Do you remember what I said about what I do?"  
"Yeah, you said you were someone who showed people what they needed to see."  
"In some cases, I have to create certain scenes, if you will, that push them into making the right decision, or realizing the truth of their feelings. But in your case, in fact the case of all your friends, I think all I have to do is show you what would have been."  
As Adara muttered that last sentence, Maria noticed her vision clouding over, like she was looking at the world through the glass of the old mirror. The muted sounds of traffic that she had been hearing vanished, and she found herself in the last place she expected to be... 


End file.
